Doan Theatre
10402 St. Clair Avenue,
Cleveland,
OH
44108
10402 St. Clair Avenue,
Cleveland,
OH
44108
No one has favorited this theater yet
The Doan Theatre opened in around 1919 and closed in the early-1950’s. It was once operated by the Loew’s theatre chain, but had difficulty competing with the larger and more opulent Uptown Theatre, which was located across the street and down a block from the Doan Theatre at 10515 St. Clair Avenue. The Doan Theatre did have a balcony and a full stage that was once used for vaudeville shows.
Contributed by
Roger Stewart
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
The Doan Theater aka Loew’s Euclid Theater had an Austin organ Opus 824 Size 3/16 installed in 1919.
Looks like this theatre has been demolished. The google map for this address shows a parking lot for a shopping center.
Here is a 1920 ad for the Loew’s Euclid.
One of the oddest things about this theater is that neither of its names seems to make sense, at least not from from looking back on where it was located over fifty years later. One wonders why Loew’s named the theater Euclid when it was on St. Clair. There is a Doan Avenue in Cleveland, but it does not cross St. Clair, though it does cross Euclid Avenue near the Windemere Rapid Transit station. The area around 105th and Euclid was known as Doan’s Corners, but that area is a considerable distance from 105th and St. Clair which is where this theater was approximately located.
Doan’s Creek is what runs along MLK (formerly Liberty Blvd), through the cultural gardens to Wade Park Lagoon. Doan’s Corners had died out as a name for Euclid-105, but Doan still had resonance, and was on the Glenville side of Liberty.
It’s possible that Loew’s operated the Euclid from 1919 until they built the Park in 1921 across the street and a little bit west. As this theatre was less than half the size of the Loew’s Park it probably became a move-over house and Loew’s eventually lost interest. The subsequent operator probably renamed it. It would be interesting to see if there are any advertisements showing Loew’s operating the Euclid and Park simultaneously.
Ah, I would agree DB, except that the Doan/Loew’s Euclid was not on Euclid, but on St. Clair near 105th, so it could not have been across the street from the Park. (see my comment above, when I noted that neither of this theater’s names really makes locational sense).
Otherwise, I think your conjecture about what Loew’s probably did in 1921 makes good sense, especially – as you probably know, the area round 105th and Euclid wasa sort of second downtown for a couple of decades, with two very grand palaces and some smaller houses along with any fine restaurant and stores. If you go there, it is almost hard to believe what it once was, how rundown it became. most of the area is occupied by hospitals and offices.
I don’t know how I missed that – I guess from the names Euclid and Doan I just assumed…well…no excuse…careless reading at 2am.
My mother worked at the Doan Theater in Cleveland in the late 1940s. She sold tickets. She has been deceased since 1983 and I just found out about this today. Anyone else out there whose parents/grandparents worked at Doan’s? Please get in touch by e-mail at .
I was the Assistant Manager of this theater way back in the Late 40’s. One unusual feature was a big pond in the lobby stocked with beautiful large Gold Fish. Adult admission was 50 cents, Junior was 25 cents, children 10 cents. Those were the days. hehrman28